Systems Analysis and Design

9th Edition

Chapter 2
Analyzing the Business Case
Introduction
• The term business case refers to the reasons,
or justification, for a proposal
• A strong business case suggests that the
company should pursue the alternative, above
other options, because it would be in the
firm’s best interest to do so
• Systems development typically starts with a
systems request, followed by a preliminary
investigation, which includes a feasibility study

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Strategic Planning – A Framework for
IT Systems Development
• SWOT: Examines a company’s Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
– What are our strengths, and how can we use them to
achieve our business goals?
– What are our weaknesses, and how can we reduce or
eliminate them?
– What are our opportunities, and how do we plan to take
advantage of them?
– What are our threats, and how can we assess, manage,
and respond to the possible risks?

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Strategic Planning – A Framework for
IT Systems Development

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Strategic Planning – A Framework for
IT Systems Development
• From Strategic Plans to
Business Results
– Mission statement
– Stakeholders
– Goals
– Objectives

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Information Systems Projects
• Main Reasons for Systems Projects

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Information Systems Projects
• Factors that Affect Systems Projects

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Evaluation of Systems Requests
• Systems review committee or a computer
resources committee evaluate systems
requests
• Systems Requests Forms
– A properly designed form streamlines the request
process and ensures consistency
– Occasionally a situation will arise that requires an
immediate response

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Evaluation of Systems Requests
• Systems Review Committees
– Most large companies use a systems review
committee to evaluate systems requests
– Many smaller companies rely on one person to
evaluate systems requests instead of a committee
– The goal is to evaluate the requests and set
priorities

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Preliminary investigation: A systems analyst
conducts a preliminary investigation to study
the systems request and recommend specific
action.
• Interaction with Managers and Users
– Let people know about the investigation and explain your role
– Employee attitudes and reactions are important and must be
considered
– Be careful in your use of the word problem
– Question users about additional capability they would like to have

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Planning the Preliminary Investigation
– During a preliminary investigation, a systems
analyst typically follows a series of steps
– The exact procedure depends on the nature of the
request, the size of the project, and the degree of
urgency

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Step 1: Understand the Problem or
Opportunity
– Request for new system (develop business profile)
– Request may contain symptoms (e.g. improper
scheduling)
– When you analyze a systems request, you need to
determine which departments, users, and
business processes are involved.

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Step 2: Define the Project Scope and
Constraints
– Project scope
– Project creep
– Constraint

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Step 2: Define the Project Scope and
Constraints
– Present versus future
– Internal versus external
– Mandatory versus desirable
– Regardless of the type, all constraints should be
identified as early as possible to avoid future
problems and surprises

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Step 3: Perform Fact-Finding
– The objective of fact-finding is to gather data
about project usability, costs, benefits, and
schedules.
– Fact-finding involves various techniques
– Depending on what information is needed to
investigate the systems request, fact-finding might
consume several hours, days, or weeks

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Step 3: Perform Fact-Finding
– Analyze Organizational Charts
– Conduct interviews
– Review documentation
– Observe operations
– Conduct a user survey

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Step 4: Analyze Project Usability, Cost,
Benefit, and Schedule Data
– During fact-finding, you gathered data about the
project’s predicted costs, anticipated benefits, and
schedule issues that could affect implementation.
– Before you can evaluate feasibility, you must
analyze this data carefully.
• if you conducted interviews or used surveys, you should
tabulate the data to make it easier to understand.

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Step 4: Analyze Project Usability, Cost, Benefit, and
Schedule Data
– develop time and cost estimates for the requirements
modeling tasks for the next SDLC phase, systems analysis
– What information you will get?
– Will you conduct interviews? How many people will you interview,
and how much time will you need to meet with the people and
summarize their responses?
– Will you conduct a survey? Who will be involved? How much time
will it take people to complete it? How much time will it take to
prepare it and tabulate the results?
– How much will it cost to analyze the information and prepare a
report with findings and recommendations?

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Step 5: Evaluate Feasibility
– Operational feasibility: Is the proposal desirable in
an operational sense? Is it a practical approach
that will solve a problem or take advantage of an
opportunity to achieve company goals?
– Technical feasibility: Is the proposal technically
feasible? Are the necessary technical resources
and people available for the project?

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Step 5: Evaluate Feasibility
– Economic feasibility: Is the proposal economically
desirable? What are the projected savings and
costs? Are other intangible factors involved, such
as customer satisfaction or company image? Is the
problem worth solving, and will the request result
in a sound business investment?
– Schedule feasibility: Can the proposal be
accomplished within an acceptable time frame?

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Step 6: Present Results and
Recommendations to Management
– The final task in the preliminary investigation is to
prepare a report to management
– The format of the preliminary investigation report
varies from one company to another

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Step 6: Present Results
and Recommendations
to Management
• Introduction
• Systems request
summary
• Findings
• Case for action

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Preliminary Investigation Overview
• Step 6: Present Results and
Recommendations to Management
• Project Roles
• Time & cost estimates
• Expected benefits
• Appendix

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